The Edinboro Area Historical Society’s July meeting will feature a detailed account of Lt. Theodore B. Scarlett’s World War II adventures as a co-pilot of a B-24 bomber in the European Theater.
Tee Scarlett displays his father's WWII leather bomber jacket which has become an important family keepsake.
Lt. Scarlett, helping to fly Lemon Drop, survived the attack on oil refineries at Ploesti, Romania. The attack in which Hitler’s oil supply – Europe’s largest oil production and refining complex – was to be destroyed was launched from Lybia, North Africa. Nearly a third of the aircraft were lost in the raid.
Lt. Scarlett was part of the 8th Air Force’s 44th Bomb Group known as the “Flying Eight Balls.” After flying 15 missions over Germany in Black Jack, Lt. Scarlett was shot down, captured and spent two years as a prisoner of war.
A 12-foot tall vertical stabilizer from Black Jack is now on exhibit at the Wings Remembered Aviation History Museum in Lebanon, Tennessee which is 30 miles east of Nashville. It was here that Edinboro’s Roger Scarlett and his brother Tee found the piece of the aircraft their father had flown over Germany.
Both Roger and Tee will present a program on the exploits of Lt. Scarlett at the Edinboro Area Historical Society’s July meeting. The meeting will be held on Wednesday, July 20th in the council chamber at the Edinboro Municipal Building, 124 Meadville Street. The business meeting will begin at 6:30 pm followed by refreshments. The program about Lt. Scarlett’s WW II experiences will begin at 7:00. The Edinboro Area Historical Society’s meetings are free and open to the public.